How did the idea for the Mariah video come about?

SEB: The first OG 2000 video already included Mariah Carey in the intro and through out the video. You would have to ask Hugo or Guillaume why Mariah Carey and not someone else. I think they felt like we needed a female mascot as a role model. In OGZOOO, we chose Zinédine Zidane as our theme for the video, Luc has some sort of obsession with him and the whole France 98 football team. People were sort of complaining of the fact that Mariah wasn’t in our second video and wanted her back. I went to Toronto to study for a year and really got into filming. I was able to skate with the Vert Dogs crew and film stuff for their individual projects over there.

Guillaume kept on making dope little instagram edits, but an OG 2000 video was then kind of put on hold. When I got back last summer, we decided to go all in with Mariah and just give the people what they wanted. We even made some boards and t-shirts which Gab finances. I only filmed for the video once I got back and in total we shot the video within three months. We had a premiere planned at the end of October and waited until the last minute to put it together, it was a bit hectic. My roommate is a rap artist and he records music pretty much 24/7 in his room which he kind of transformed into a studio. We were able to record the voices of the princess and Mariah there over a night, which left us with three sleepless nights putting the whole thing together. In fact, the video wasn’t fully done until 15 minutes before the premiere. It was all pretty spontaneous.

»Geneva is an oddly paradoxal city«

HUGO: I think that the lurid and superficial image of Mariah Carey is to be considered as a reversal of matters, it’s quite feminist in a certain way. I think it’s good to look for spirituality where you don’t necessarily expect it. You can praise your football team, the Virgin Mary or whatever you want, we praise Mariah.

It’s been a while since people have used a substory for skate edits. Mariah Carey and the princess story to us felt like the Vaporwave/Trap 2017 version of Animal Chin.

SEB: 
Yeah, Hugo has already directed two short films which regularly play in festivals so he already had the whole substory planned out. Originally it was supposed to be for the OGZOOO, but he was in his last year of film school and wasn’t really able to help us out. He however was really keen for the MARIAH video, so him and I went out a couple of nights last summer and filmed this huge fair that happens every year called “Les Fêtes de Genève”. There’s a bunch of rides and concerts every night and it attracts a bunch of wealthy people from the Middle East.

I had my VX and he used my capture cam and we’d both split up and filmed whatever we considered interesting for the plot, which would revolve around a Middle-Eastern princess who discovers the “dark side” of Geneva, rather than the “rich, clean, luxurious” side it is generally associated to. We integrated Mariah as the fairy godmother who guides her through her journey. Hugo wrote the dialogues as a single conversation which we then spread out through out the video. We really wanted to show summers in Geneva from a young foreign lady’s perspective, but in a fairytale kind of way.

»We don’t have a Lambo, but we’re fortunate enough to have all grown up together«

HUGO: Geneva is an oddly paradoxal city. It’s rather small compared to European capital cities, but it’s definitely very international, as much politically as economically or socially. There’s the United Nations here and a bunch of embassies. There is a rather official and transparent image given to our city, and its luxurious side attracts a lot of wealthy tourists during the summer. It gets really warm and we have a beautiful lake which you can swim in. The fair is all along the lake and it really offers everything these people could want, when in fact almost no locals go. These rich people, mostly from the Western world or from the Middle East, end up doing exactly the same thing: buying the most ridiculous expensive things. The middle of August is the climax of modern capitalism: you can find a golden Lamborghini posting up in certain places in the city. If you walk along the lakeside, you’ll often see these young boys or girls having the time of their lives on all these crazy rides. But when you look closer, you sense a form of loneliness without them actually being alone: after they are finished their merry-go-round, a man with a headset goes an pays for them. And that’s when you ask yourself: “What is going through her mind”? We don’t have a Lambo, but we’re fortunate enough to have all grown up together. It’s tough growing up and building your own identity when you’re 12-16 years old. Not everyone finds their path immediately, some people take awhile while others get lost. That’s what the princess is to us.

We therefore came up with the narrative idea of putting together two women from two different generations and two different parts of the world. The Middle-East meets the Western World where two girls talk to each other. We really wanted to capture Geneva in its most raw form to illustrate the dialogues as the female voices would incorporate any of the faces we shot. We exclusively shot these young women from the Middle East, while captivating the summer atmosphere along the lake.

»The ollie on the Mercedes was done first try, I think but the second one, on the Ferrari, took a few tries…«

We wanted the dialogue to stay quite naïve by making it a bit cheesy but keeping it sincere nevertheless.

Geneva is pretty posh in some parts… a lot of the skating I see come from there has quite a gangster vibe. Are you purposely aiming to balance stuff out?

SEB: 
It is indeed often described as a pretty posh place. However, I think as skateboarders we are one large community and we can understand each other no matter where you are. I think the gangster vibe over here was like 10 years ago over but kind of disappeared. There isn’t really any kind of trend over here, but I feel like in Zurich they are definitely way more gangster than us.
Gangsterism wasn’t the main theme of the video, but was rather to be taken literally. In fact we kind of went against that image of gangsters who denigrate women and chose to only use female artists for the soundtrack. There are quite a few people who come to our premieres who don’t skate, so we wanted this video to not only speak to the skateboard community, but to all types of different people. After the premiere, it seemed like a lot of people who aren’t into skateboarding ended up enjoying it as well.

HUGO: 
It all depends in which street you find yourself in. If you leave the lakeside and simply go a few streets more into the city, you arrive in “les Pâquis 1201” district, where you’ll find dealers, pimps and prostitutes. The place is most definitely animated but just in a different way. It’s all a question of what street you’re on. 
Unfortunately, some dudes, even in skateboarding, look up to that common image of gangsters who use the image of women as objects. We’re not into that kind of stuff at all. Gay thugs do exist man, sometimes they’re french kissing and sometimes they’re carjacking. Do yourself a favour and accept others as they are. Feelings are important,

Is finding flashy cars to ride on a thing over there? Pretty punk move!

SEB: 
People could think from MARIAH that it’s a common thing, but no not really. I think we are the first ones to do that sort of thing in Geneva, but hopefully not the last. The ollie on the Mercedes was done first try, I think but the second one, on the Ferrari, took a few tries. We would try it, and then just run around the block and come back and try it until he got it.

»Lambo: the hood is super soft and enjoyable on your four wheels. Aston Martins are pretty fun to skate on as well…«

HUGO: The first car to be rode on was the Ferrari. It was there and we were there. It was unthinkable not to try it.

Anyone ever get into serious trouble about it?

SEB: We got lucky to not get into any trouble.

HUGO: 
In any case, I think we all knew how to react if anything was to happen.

Best car to cruise over?

SEB: Definitely the Lambo. The hood is super soft and enjoyable on your four wheels. Aston Martins are pretty fun to skate on as well. Haha.

You all heard it! Thanks very much guys.